This pistol was given by General Dwight D. Eisenhower to Admiral
Sir A. B. Cunningham, R.N., during the November 1942 Allied
invasion of North Africa.

Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on October
14, 1890, the third of seven sons born to David and Ida Stover
Eisenhower, a devoutly religious German-Swiss family that had roots
in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kansas. In 1891, the Eisenhowers
relocated to Abilene, Kansas, where the future president excelled
in history, mathematics, and athletics before entering the United
States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1911.

As a member of the Long Gray Line, Eisenhower starred on the
Academy's football team before graduating 61st in the 164-member
Class of 1915. A year later, he married Mamie Doud of Denver,
Colorado. The couple had two sons, Dwight Doud, who died at age
three, and John Sheldon Doud. During Eisenhower's Army career, he
served in the fledgling Tank Corps as commanding officer of Camp
Colt, which was located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was ordered
to France during the First World War, but these orders were
rescinded when the war ended on November 11, 1918. He later
graduated first in his class at the Army's Command and General
Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

During a post-war assignment to Europe, Eisenhower studied the
battlefields of the war and gained a thorough knowledge of the
terrain and road networks of France. This knowledge served him well
in planning the 1944 invasion of Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe,"
and the subsequent Allied drive to the Rhine. Between 1929 and
1935, Lieutenant Colonel Eisenhower gained additional experience
when he was assigned to the office of the Undersecretary of War
before serving on the personal staff of General Douglas MacArthur,
who was then Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. In the fall of 1935,
he accompanied MacArthur to his new assignment in the Philippines,
where the two men set out to create an army from scratch under
difficult conditions. Upon his return to the United States in 1940,
Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff of the 3rd Infantry Division.
He participated in the largest peacetime maneuvers in Army history,
and his contribution to the Third Army's strategic plans was a key
factor in the unit's overwhelming victory during these
exercises.

By September 1941, he was promoted to Brigadier General and
re-assigned to Washington, where he served as Chief of the War
Plans and Operations Divisions. After the Japanese attack on the
U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Eisenhower
was assigned by Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to
strengthen U.S. defenses in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean,
and to plan the recovery of territory captured by the Japanese. In
June 1942, he was given command of all American troops in Europe
and charged with planning Operation Torch, the U.S. invasion of
North Africa in November of that year. By May 1943, American and
British forces had pushed the Germans from their last stronghold in
Tunisia. U.S. and Commonwealth troops next invaded Sicily, then
Italy.

In December 1943, Eisenhower was promoted to Supreme Commander
of the Allied Expeditionary Forces and given the responsibility of
planning and directing the invasion of occupied France and the
eventual destruction of the Nazi war machine. Beginning with the
combined airborne and amphibious assault on the Normandy beaches,
Allied forces mounted against Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and SS troops
in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. By September, the Allies
had reached the frontier of the Reich, and all German resistance
collapsed in early May 1945 with the fall of Berlin and the death
of Hitler. After the end of the war, Eisenhower served as commander
of U.S. forces in occupied Germany before becoming the Army's Chief
of Staff in November 1945.

In 1948, he became President of Columbia University while
continuing to serve as a senior military advisor in the Truman
Administration. President Truman appointed General Eisenhower as
Supreme Commander of NATO military forces, a position that he held
for fifteen months in the face of increasing Cold War tensions in
Europe between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union. Friends and
admirers had encouraged Eisenhower to seek the Presidency of the
United States, and in 1952, he answered the call. In his first
address since leaving NATO command, he defined what he believed
were four major threats to the American way of life.

These were the substitution of punitive laws in place of a
cooperative spirit among citizens, excessive taxation that
destroyed individual incentive, currency inflation that undermined
financial security, and a growing centralized burearcracy that
absorbed and replaced the functions of local community and the
individual. These issues formed the backbone of his campaign, and,
after winning the Republican Party's nomination, he went on to
defeat Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson by a wide margin. The
new president had proven in various command positions that he was
an able administrator, and, although lacking in formal political
experience, he had also proven himself able to organize diverse
groups and set them to work for a common goal. Eisenhower
established a good relationship with Congress, and he was able to
maintain this relationship even after the Democrats captured both
houses in 1954.

Despite questions about his health which arose from coronary
problems and emergency intestinal surgery in late 1955 and early
1956, he again defeated Adlai Stevenson to win a second term. The
nation prospered economically during Eisenhower's administration,
and important civil rights and defense-related legislation was
passed, but the President was faced with a number of international
crises. The truce ending the fighting in Korea was signed shortly
after his first inauguration. NATO was strengthened by the addition
of West Germany, and SEATO was organized to defend the Far East
against Communism. During 1956, the Soviet invasion of Hungary
brought U.S. and U.N. condemnation, and Eisenhower also condemned
both Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal and the resulting invasion
of that country by England, France, and Israel.

The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957 spurred the country
to increased educational and scientific efforts. By the end of
Eisenhower's second term, the nation had made significant progress
in a number of areas, but in his final State of the Union Address,
he stressed that this process must never end. After leaving office,
the Eisenhowers retired to their farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
This property is maintained by the National Park Service, and has
become a popular tourist destination for visitors to that historic
area. Dwight D. Eisenhower was well-known for his love of golf, but
he also enjoyed quail hunting and skeet shooting.

Featured in the National Firearms Museum's collection is a
Winchester Model 21 side-by-side 20 gauge shotgun bearing the
President's initials, the five stars symbolic of his military rank,
and the inscription, "To a straight shooter from a friend." This
shotgun was given to Eisenhower by Robert Woodruff, president of
Coca Cola, and was donated to the Museum by President Eisenhower's
son, General John S. D. Eisenhower. Also displayed in the Museum is
then-General Eisenhower's personal sidearm, a Colt M1911A1 pistol.
Prior to the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa under the code
name Operation Torch, General Eisenhower gave this pistol to
Admiral Sir A.B. Cunningham of the Royal Navy.

President Eisenhower died in Washington, DC on March 28, 1969.
He was buried at his family home in Abeline, Kansas. - - John Moses
Browning (1855 - 1926) was a true genius of mechanical design. The
son of a Mormon gunsmith, he began working full-time in that
profession at age 15. His 1878 design for a single-shot metallic
cartridge rifle resulted in the first of many patents that he would
receive during his lifetime. In partnership with five of his
brothers, Browning later opened a machine shop in Ogden, Utah, but
the firm's output of three guns per day could not keep up with
demand for his products. One of his rifles was purchased by a
representative of Winchester Repeating Arms Company and shipped to
Thomas G. Bennett, the firm's General Manager, who purchased the
patent rights for $8,000 and hired the Browning brothers as
Winchester "jobbers".

At this time, Winchester's popular Model 1873 lever-action rifle
could not handle large-caliber ammunition such as the .45-70
cartridge. Browning set himself to this task, and he designed and
patented a simple but strong lever-action rifle with a smooth
action. This rifle, which would become the Winchester Model 1886,
could handle cartridges as large as the .50-110 Express, and is
considered by some to be the finest lever-action rifle ever.
Browning's association with Winchester continued until 1902 and
resulted in the Model 1885 Single Shot Rifle, the Model 1887
lever-action shotgun, the Model 1893 and Model 1897 pump-action
shotguns, and the Model 1892, Model 1894, and Model 1895
lever-action rifles.

The Model 1894 alone resulted in over five million sales for the
company and is still in production. Additional Browning patents
were purchased by Winchester but never produced to prevent
competing firms from bringing them to market. In the summer of
1896, Browning traveled to Colt's Manufacturing Company in
Hartford, Connecticut with four patented semi-automatic pistols of
his design. Two of these guns were forerunners of such famous arms
as the Fabrique Nationale Model 1900 and the Colt Model 1911. All
possessed features that are still commonly used on semi-auto
pistols such as slides, slide springs located over, under, or
around the barrel, grip safeties, and detachable magazines located
inside the butt.

As a result of this visit, Browning signed an agreement that
licensed Colt to produce his pistols and promised additional
licenses for improvements in these designs. In return, Colt agreed
to provide royalties, something that was foreign to Winchester at
that time, as the firm bought patents outright from their
designers. A year later, while visiting the Colt offices, Browning
met Hart O. Berg of Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. Browning, Colt,
and FN entered into a licensing agreement that gave the North
American market to Colt, the European continent to FN, and a shared
market in Great Britain. In addition, the two firms agreed to pay
cross royalties for territorial "infringement." Browning was no
stranger to Colt. In 1888, he came up with the idea of harnessing
propellant gas from the muzzle of a rifle to cycle the gun's
action.

Three years later, he took his patented design for the world's
first gas-operated fully-automatic "machine gun" to Hartford. Under
Colt auspices, he demonstrated this gun for the U.S. Navy, which
was interested in obtaining machine guns that were capable of
firing continuously for three minutes. Browning doubted the ability
of his prototype, with its 600 rounds-per-minute rate of fire, to
stand up to this punishing test. Although the barrel turned
red-hot, the gun successfully completed the trial, and Browning
signed a licensing agreement with Colt. These machine guns later
saw action in both the Spanish-American War and the Boxer
Rebellion.

In 1915, Browning anticipated U.S. entry into the war that was
then raging in Europe, and designed two machine guns that would see
wide service over the next several decades. The first was a
water-cooled machine gun, chambered for the .30-06 cartridge, that
successfully fired 20,000 rounds during two different trials
without a malfunction. This gun also fired a continuous burst for
over 48 minutes, ending only when the ammunition belt was
completely expended. The second of these designs was for the
B.A.R., or Browning Automatic Rifle, a 15-pound light machine gun
that also chambered the .30-06 cartridge. When the United States
went to war in 1917, the government bought production rights for
these two guns, as well as the Colt Model 1911 pistol, for
$750,000. Browning moved to Hartford to supervise the manufacture
of these guns by Colt and other contractors, but by the time
production reached its peak, the war had ended.

However, these guns played an important role during the Second
World War and other conflicts. Browning's post-First World War
military designs included both water- and air-cooled .50 caliber
machine guns, and a 37 millimeter automatic cannon for use in
aircraft. For the civilian market, he was responsible for the
Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun, the Superposed double shotgun, the
Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, and several other designs,
including a .22 caliber rifle with one spring and a single moving
part. All told, John Browning received over 120 U.S. and foreign
patents for over 80 different firearms, and his designs were
produced by a variety of manufacturers.

He died of heart failure in 1926 at age 71 in the Fabrique
National office of his son, Val. Samuel Colt was born in Hartford,
Connecticut on July 19, 1814. He showed an early fascination with
science, and during his youth, Colt studied both chemistry and
mechanics. While still a boy, he attempted to produce a pistol that
was capable of firing multiple shots without reloading, but his
efforts were unsuccessful. In 1830-31, while the sixteen year-old
Colt was serving as a seaman aboard the brig Corvo, he observed the
ship's wheel and the relationship of the various spokes to the
center hub. This inspired him to make a wooden model of a revolving
pistol. Although others had already experimented with revolvers,
Colt's design was the first to automatically rotate the cylinder
when the gun was cocked.

After his return to the United States, he showed his model to
his father, Christopher, and to Henry L. Ellsworth, a friend of the
elder Colt who was then serving as Commissioner at the U.S. Patent
Office in Washington. Both men encouraged Samuel to continue with
his work and to seek a patent for his design. At this point in his
life, Colt had an idea but no money with which to proceed on his
new career path. For the next four years, he worked the traveling
show circuit as "Dr. Coult of Calcutta." His lectures and
demonstration of nitrous oxide to crowds in the U.S. and Canada
provided a source of capital, which was forwarded to gunsmiths who
produced working versions of his firearms designs. In addition to
the money he received, this period in his life also provided Colt
with valuable experience in public speaking, marketing, and public
relations.

At age 20, Colt gave up touring and, with borrowed money,
traveled to Europe to secure English and French patents for his
revolving pistol. Upon his return to the United States in 1836, he
also received a U.S. patent. In March, 1836, Colt formed the Patent
Arms Company and began operation in an unused silk mill along the
banks of the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey. His first
product was a ring-lever revolving rifle, available in .34, .36,
.38, .40, and .44 caliber, in which a ring located forward of the
trigger served to cock the hammer and advance the cylinder for each
shot. This was soon followed with a revolving pistol. These
five-shot "Paterson" revolvers featured folding triggers, and were
available both with and without loading levers in .28, .31, and .36
caliber. Patent Arms also produced smoothbore revolving carbines
and shotguns.

The outbreak of war between the U.S. government and the Seminole
tribe provided Colt with his first break. Seminole warriors had
learned that soldiers were vulnerable while reloading their
single-shot firearms, and they developed a tactic of drawing fire,
then rushing the temporarily defenseless soldiers and wiping them
out before they could fire a second volley. Colt's revolving rifles
were quite effective against this, and the Army purchased his
products for use by troops in the Florida campaign. Unfortunately
for the young inventor and businessman, the Patent Arms Company
went bankrupt and ceased operation in 1842.

The company's assets were sold at auction, and Colt turned his
attention to other areas, including the use of electric current
from galvanic batteries to detonate underwater explosive mines. The
U.S. government was sufficiently interested in this idea that Colt
received funding to continue his work for possible use in harbor
defense. During this period, Colt met Captain Sam Walker of the
Texas Rangers. Walker and his fellow Rangers had experience with
Colt's Paterson revolvers, and one Paterson-armed troop of 15 men
under the command of Jack Hays had successfully charged and
defeated 80 Comanches, then considered to be the finest light
cavalry in the world. Walker believed that an improved version of
the earlier revolver would be an asset on the frontier.

The two men designed a massive 4 pound, 9-ounce .44 caliber
six-shot revolver, and the government ordered 1,000 of them for
issue to mounted troops. Since Colt no longer had a manufacturing
facility, he contracted with Eli Whitney of Whitneyville,
Connecticut, to produce these guns. This order was completed in
1847, and Colt once again devoted himself to firearms production.
He established a new factory in Hartford during that same year, and
began production of a smaller, lighter .44 caliber revolver. These
so-called "transitional Walkers" were followed by the First,
Second, and Third Model Dragoon revolvers, as well by as the Baby
Dragoon, the Model 1849 Pocket Revolver, and the Model 1851 Navy
Revolver. Many of these guns saw service through the Civil War and
beyond. The discovery of gold in California stimulated the demand
for firearms, and Colt also received orders from Russia and Turkey
during the Crimean War. He expanded his operations to England,
operating a manufacturing plant in London between 1853 and
1857.

By this time, Colt operated the world's largest private armory,
and he had introduced standardized production, division of labor,
and assembly-line mass-production methods to his factory. In 1855,
Colt introduced a spur trigger revolver that featured a
fully-enclosed cylinder. These sidehammer, or "Root" revolvers,
were named for Elisha K. Root, a noted inventor and holder of the
sidehammer patent, who at that time was employed as Colt's factory
superintendent and Chief Engineer. Colt also produced the
sidehammer Model 1855 rifles and carbines for military and sporting
use, as well as a revolving shotgun.

In failing health, Colt expanded his factory on the eve of the
Civil War, and began production of a new, lightweight .44 caliber
Army revolver, followed a year later by a .36 caliber Navy version.
Samuel Colt died in Hartford on January 10, 1862 at the age of 47.
Although he did not see the end of the Civil War, his products
played an important role in its outcome. During the war, the
Hartford factory produced revolvers, as well as the Colt Special
Musket, based on the government's Springfield Rifle-Musket. The
Model 1860 Army revolver was the primary issue revolver for U.S.
troops, while other Colt revolvers were acquired through private
purchase. The Colt Special Musket was issued to state troops, and
the Model 1855 Revolving Rifle saw service with both Union infantry
and cavalry, as well as with Colonel Hiram Berdan's United States
Sharp Shooters. Colt firearms have continued to play a significant
role in America's history.

The post-Civil War period brought with it a variety of metallic
cartridge revolvers, including conversions of percussion arms.
Perhaps the most famous of these is the Single Action Army
revolver, often known popularly as the "Peacemaker," which saw
widespread use in the hands of soldiers, settlers, gunslingers, and
peace officers. Colt also produced a variety of other handguns,
ranging from their deringer models to a line of .44 and .45
double-action revolvers. The slide-action Lightning rifles competed
for a place in the market dominated by Winchester's lever-action
models.

In the 20th century, Colt-produced arms have served with U.S.
and foreign forces in two World Wars, as well as a variety of
limited conflicts. The John Browning-designed M1911 semi-automatic
pistol is still in use after more than 70 years, and Colt machine
guns, also designed by Browning and manufactured under license, saw
use in everything from infantry positions to armored vehicles,
aircraft, and ships. The Hartford-based company, now a division of
C.F. Holding Corporation, also produces the M16 battle rifle that
is currently used by both U.S. and foreign military forces.

In addition to military sales, Colt's revolvers, and the
company's semi-automatic pistols and rifles are popular with law
enforcement agencies and with competitive and recreational
shooters.